


make this daring motion something constant, face to face.

by tamanone



Category: Joker Game (Anime)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, M/M, Post-Canon, Reunions, Set in the 1960s, Valentine's Day, so they're both old men in this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-28 00:01:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17776715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tamanone/pseuds/tamanone
Summary: Alain took his time walking down the street; red and pink dominated the decorations in almost all kind of establishment for the occasion, has been so since around last week, and it’s almost impossible to miss the sheer number of couples and families filling the space.The novelty of Valentine’s Day has worn off, and Alain found no urgency within himself to find a wife, but sights like this were still bound to make a single man feel a tiny bit lonely.





	make this daring motion something constant, face to face.

**Author's Note:**

> alternative summary: Alain thinks he's still single because he's devoted to his country, turns out he's just gay.
> 
> this fic is part of the joker game candygram 2k19 event, and the person i'm writing for is [imaultrabossbruh](https://imaultrabossbruh.tumblr.com/) on tumblr! i had fun writing this and i hope i did our boy alain justice ;;;;; he deserves all the love
> 
> happy valentine's day to all of you who celebrates it! just remember that valentine's day is a scam created by scorpios to make more scorpios. jk (but also not really).
> 
> title taken from unison square garden's invisible sensation.

As years pass by, the novelty of Valentine’s Day has worn off for Alain. This year, too, he didn’t have anyone to share it with, just like last year and the year before it. He’s in his forties now, and has not yet taken a wife. The war was long done, and his country was slowly but surely recuperating from it, yet still he felt like he was unable to put his duty for his country aside, and spent his days running around helping anyone in need in his community.

Today was no different. Alain took his time walking down the street; red and pink dominated the decorations in almost all kind of establishment for the occasion, has been so since around last week, and it’s almost impossible to miss the sheer number of couples and families filling the space.

The novelty of Valentine’s Day has worn off, and Alain found no urgency within himself to find a wife, but sights like this were still bound to make a single man feel a tiny bit lonely. He trekked on, nonetheless — exchanging ‘good morning’s with familiar faces, people he had came to know so well from living in the same town all his life. The newspaper boy informed him last week about this old woman living alone near the edge of the town that has been grumbling to him about how it was slowly becoming harder and harder to open the doors in her house because the hinges were getting rusty. He told the boy to notify her that he would drop by sometime in a week or two, since at the time he was in the middle of repairing some bookshelves in the public library. So now he was currently on his way to her place to assess the damage in person.

Just as he was about to cross the street, someone passed by him.

There was nothing that should’ve attracted his attention toward the other man. He didn’t bump into him or anything, simply walked by like any other person on the street, yet Alain’s heart stuttered in his ribcage and something in his mind was telling him to turn around and find out who that person was for himself.

(A series of memories popped up in his mind, unprompted and capricious: of a sweet looking boy with glasses and slicked-back hair, walking with books about classic French literature in his arms; of said boy aiding a French woman publicly tormented by German soldiers; of **him** aiding the boy when he fell unconscious; of finally learning the boy’s name after a whirlwind of a night where he found out that the sweet boy was most likely an undercover spy and that his friends had betrayed him.)

So he did. He turned around and went in the direction of where he came from instead of where he was supposed to head to. Letting go of his plan to visit the old woman with the strenuous doors and quickened his walk so he could catch up with the mystery man. His brain supplied a thought, a coaxing _it’s okay, it’s not that urgent a matter, it’s okay_. Alain still felt guilty regardless, he was supposed to put his duty to the people of his country first, and what he’s currently doing was...

The man stopped in front of a bakery, and so Alain ceased his chasing as well. He felt the rapid pace of his heartbeat, partly because of his impromptu half-run, but also something else he couldn’t yet name. Messy hair parted in the middle, faint lines that betrayed age, down-turned eyes making the person look like he’s about to doze off any second from now—even if he’s quite obviously studying the storefront display. If not for the person’s stature and the way his lips were upturned in a lazy smirk, Alain probably would’ve missed him entirely. It’s been so long, Alain was surprised he even still remember.

“Shimano—?” He said, voice soft enough to almost be a whisper.

Silence. The person didn’t say a thing, didn’t even turn his head at the name.

But the other person heard him, Alain knew he did. He caught the minute twitch of his brows, the momentary tensing of his body, the split-second pause of his eyes as he uttered the name before continuing to sweep over the special selections of pastries for the day.

“Ryousuke Shimano?” This time his voice was louder, more confident, leaving very little room for doubt.

This time the other did respond, another minuscule twitch of his facial muscle before turning his head to face Alain. The recognition in his eyes appeared almost immediate, but it took a few more seconds before Shimano curved his lips upward and replied, “Oh, Mr. Lernier?”

The moment that smile was directed at him something clicked in Alain’s mind.

_Ah, this is it._

_So it wasn’t a sense of duty to my country after all. At least not entirely. I was just waiting for someone, all this time._

“Yes.. are you here to get breakfast?”

The smile on Shimano’s face got a tad bit wider, probably to mask his surprise that Alain didn’t immediately ask him what he’s doing in France.

“Indeed. Are you familiar with this bakery? If you are then I’d like to ask for some recommendations.”

Alain was about to reply to his question properly, but his brain must have decided to disable his filter at that exact moment because what came out was this:

“Would you mind going to my favorite cafe instead? It’s just a couple streets away from here. The pricing is quite good, and I know the owner. That way we can also sit down and talk... if you want...?” his voice got a bit smaller towards the end, only realizing how forward he must’ve seemed. It’s not like Shimano said he wants to get breakfast _with him_...

“Are you asking me out on a Valentine’s day date, Mr. Lernier?” The only thing keeping Alain from running away or digging a hole for his own grave right now was the very obvious teasing tone Shimano laced his words with, so Alain braved himself on.

“Yes.”

Shimano’s smile had transformed into a full-blown grin at this point. “Very well, please lead the way.”

**Author's Note:**

> oooh my god. y'all. here it is. my first fanfic on ao3. i hope this is decent??? both me and my beta (nadya, my bestest homie, miss lyridsasa on twitter) turned out to be too dumb for english at this point so i'd like to apologize for any dumb grammatical mistakes. also any other mistakes because i honestly know jackshit about france in the '60s.
> 
> some clarification, i guess:  
> -my hc is that hatano no longer actively works as a d-agency spy in the 1960s. he's promoted to a supervisor now that yuuki left and gave his position to kaminaga, and hatano was most likely there in france to collect report from one of the new gen spies. if you're confused about what i'm talking about i'm referring to [miwa shirow's headcanon](http://jgfiles.tumblr.com/post/169391164287/so-i-managed-to-get-my-hands-on-miwa-shirows)  
> -alain called out to hatano using his last name bc realistically speaking they're like, acquaintance at best? they spent One Crazy Day together and that's it right
> 
> on an only partly related note, i also made a [character playlist](http://tamanone.tumblr.com/post/182798161373/now-these-days-are-feeling-dark-an-alain-lernier) for alain. it's mostly angsty, and is available on 8tracks and youtube. just throwing it out there!
> 
> lastly: here's my [twitter](https://twitter.com/kaminagasama), [cc](https://curiouscat.me/tamanone), and [tumblr](http://tamanone.tumblr.com/). see y'all sometimes in the next century because i have zero idea when i'm going to post fic next.


End file.
